“All them heroes and hero-wines of Pearl’s keeps their shoes ferever spick an’ span an’ shinin’,” said Harkness. “People always do, you’ll notice, in books; at least them she reads about do. She was readin’ a book yisterday, and I looked at the picture of the hero. He had boots on that come to his thighs, and they’d jist been blacked. And the women in them books wear more fine clothes than you could find in a milliner’s shop.” “Clothes aren’t found in a milliner’s shop, Steve!” Pearl corrected, as she settled Helen firmly on her feet and proceeded to spread out the fluffy white skirts. “Justin will think you don’t know anything.” Helen, escaping from her mother’s clutches, and apparently glad to escape, made straight for Harkness, who caught her up, planted on her cheek a resounding kiss, and then plumped her down astride of one big knee. Pleased by this preference, his face was radiant. “Justin,” his eyes shone with enthusiasm and delight, “there ain’t anything like bein’ married. Try it. I used to think I was havin’ fun, cuttin’ round skittish and wild like a loose steer on the range; this ain’t fun, mebbe, it’s comfort.” “From what I hear, Justin intends to try it one of these days,” said Pearl, with a questioning look. “Don’t you think he is, Doctor Clayton? You’re hearing things like that, aren’t you?” Clayton laughed, and glanced at Justin’s flushing face. “I can’t say what his intentions are, but if they concern a certain young lady I could name, they have my hearty approval.” “Yet it does seem almost like marrying relatives,” said Pearl. “I can’t get used to that yet. I had a cousin that married another cousin; and their children—well, you just ought to see their children!” “Monkeys, air they?” said Harkness. “Monkeys! Why, Steve, they’re plum fools! They don’t know enough to come into the house when it rains.” “This would be a good country fer ’em to live in, then; don’t rain here more’n one’t in a year, and I reckon they could strain their intellects enough to git a move on ’em that often.” He looked at Justin. “Speakin’ of this country and rain, we’re reckonin’, Pearl and me, that we’ll take up farmin’, fer a change; think it might be healthy fer our pocket book. I’ve had notice from Davison to quit, the first of the month. I told him I’d quit to-morrow, if it suited him and he had a man to put in my place; that if he didn’t think I was earnin’ all the good money I got and a little bit more, I did, and I stood ready to go on short notice, or without any notice at all. I’ve knowed it was comin’ this good while, and I’ve been gittin’ ready fer it. Davison and Fogg air sellin’ off a good many cattle. The rest they’re goin’ to throw onto the mesa, an’ water at the water holes of the Purgatoire; the gover’ment is orderin’ down the fences, and it would take an army of cowboys to hold the cattle off the crops, with them fences gone.” Clayton was interested. “Do you think of farming here in the valley?” he asked.